SPOTLIGHT: Sweeping Culture Daily

In Five: Aaron Sorkin Reveals Details for Steve Jobs Biopic, Maurice Hines Bringing Nightlife Back to the Apollo, and More Culture News

1. Aaron Sorkin, who we learned yesterday wouldn’t be tackling the Petreaus scandal on the upcoming season of “The Newsroom,” will instead leave the controversy for his upcoming Steve Jobs biopic. The writer claimed that his script, which is still in the works, will only feature three long scenes, each taking place in real time before the launch of a major Apple product. Sounds like a stage play to us, but we’ll just have to wait and see. [Daily Beast]

2. Maurice Hines will direct, choreograph and host a 90-minute revue at the Apollo Theater in February as part of “Apollo Club Harlem,” a performance which will transform the theater into a nightclub. “The Apollo is a legendary force in the entertainment industry and has been such a big part of my career. So I’m excited to be bringing in an unbelievably talented cast of performers who will help the audience reimagine the theatre’s grand history,” Hines said in a statement. [Playbill]

3. Jesse Plemons (“Friday Night Lights,” “Breaking Bad”) has been cast in the pilot for HBO’s “The Missionary.” The show, “centers on Roy (played by Benjamin Walker), a young American missionary who gets caught up in Cold War intrigue while helping a young woman escape East Berlin.” The oddest pairing in Hollywood, Mark Whalberg and Malcom Gladwell, are among the producers. Plemons will play “Sherwood Elbridge, a young Coca-Cola executive who helps smuggle defectors out of the Eastern Bloc.” Baltasar Kormakur (“Contraband”) will direct the pilot. [Deadline]

4. “The Performers,” a Broadway comedy set in the world on the pornography industry, is set to close on Sunday after only seven performances. The cast includes relatively big names like Henry Winkler, Cheyenne Jackson, and Alicia Silverstone, but the show failed to bring in audiences as expected. The play was also murdered by critics. The New York Times claimed that “sometimes even the raciest references can’t disguise a message straight out of a fortune cookie.” [Artsbeat]

5. Watch the trailer for “Admission,” the latest sweet-natured comedy from director Paul Weitz (“About a Boy”). Tina Fey stars as a childless admissions officer who, after meeting Paul Rudd, discovers she might have stumbled upon the child she gave up for adoption years ago. Tame stuff, and fairly predictable to boot, but it does feature a shotgun-wielding Lily Tomlin. [Vulture]